Three Scientific Ways to Avoid Turbulence - Wisdom4Humanity with Patrick Mosher

If you've followed me for a while, you know I'm a science geek. I love to apply scientific terms like momentum, energy, power, and resistance to everyday life. And when we apply these concepts from a scientific perspective, they reveal a lot about our life experiences. So today I'm going to go through a concept you probably don't like much. Turbulence. For 30 years, I traveled the world as a consultant. Turbulence is that event when you're on a plane and it starts shaking. You clench the armrest or the person next to you. But the first time I got familiar with the word turbulence or the concept was not on a plane. It was in my bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. The class was called Transport Phenomena. Right there. Oh, I spent a whole semester studying how fluids and gases flow through pipes. Fascinating, right? There are two types of flow: laminar flow, which is smooth and predictable, and turbulent flow, which is chaotic and unpredictable. Stay with me here as I describe turbulence. Turbulence is distinguished by 3 characteristics. 3 characteristics. The first one, it has eddies. Look at all those eddies happening on this stream. This is in Glendalough, Ireland. When water flows through a hose real fast, the water swirls inside the hose. That means water isn't flowing all uniformly in one direction, so the flow slows. Apply more pressure, You get more eddies, more turbulence, and less flow. So applying this, when you can't get something done, you put more pressure on it yourself, right? That works when you're flowing. Put too much pressure on yourself and your actions don't all flow in one direction, do they? You just created eddies. When your actions aren't aligned to a single motion, You are creating turbulence. Stay in the flow. The second characteristic is chaos. We're gonna go a little deeper here with our science lesson. Chaos isn't just when things go wild. It has a particular technical definition. Chaos is the phenomenon when small changes within a system generate large and unpredictable changes in direction. You know, when that one little thing annoys you so much that you throw your hands in the air and you do something else. Hmm. You probably changed direction quickly and not predictably and unproductively. Chasing shiny pennies is an indicator of being in turbulent flow. My recommendation: stop, focus, and breathe. Slow the flow. Third characteristic is diffusion. Now I love this one. Diffusion means that when there is turbulence, energy is diffused. It takes a lot of energy to create those little swirls to go against the flow. There's a lot of energy being generated there in that, that creek. More turbulence and energy is released all over the place. So do you ever feel a dissipation of energy? Did I just hear you say, "Ah, yes, daily"? When you feel overwhelmed, fatigue, or doubt, or if you feel like quitting, being stuck, or burned out, your hose isn't flowing. It's dripping. You're dissipating energy. Turbulence one your day. So take one simple action. If you must, make it small. Generate just a wee bit of confidence. One simple action begins the next moment in a smooth laminar flow. So that's our science lesson for the day on turbulence. In summary, turbulence is defined by three characteristics: eddies, chaos, and energy diffusion. These characteristics translate in our lives of feelings of overwhelm, fatigue, and doubt. You have entered turbulent flow. To avoid turbulence, stay in the flow, slow the flow, and take one simple action. If you ever experience turbulence on the plane, break it down. It's just eddies, chaos, and energy diffusion. And as the pilot takes action to reduce the turbulence, you can take one simple action to prevent physical turbulence from turning into emotional turbulence. Breathe deeply and slowly. Try it now. And on the exhale, say, ah. Feel the harmony settling into your soul. Do you feel that laminar flow? You're such a geek. Live 100% empowered.